Award-winning author, Shane Johnson (“Mr. Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise” and “Star Wars Technical Journal”) is not a household name. But to fans of Star Trek and Star Wars, he was recognized as having received some level of fame. In addition to his books, he was able to sit on panels and hobnob with cast members. He named a minor Star Wars character, influenced some of the set designs on screen for the Star Trek franchise and was a design consultant on HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon series.

So when communication from Shane went dark some eight years ago, speculation soon followed. Past health problems were mentioned. Some even wondered if he had died. Fans have continued to wonder to this day. No solid news has been available.

On July 30, 2014, I received an appreciative e-mail from someone who found my blog. She thanked me for my blog and invited me to chat with her. We have much in common, including being Christian and published authors. Although we live over a thousand miles apart, we have become good friends since that initial meeting by e-mail. We frequently talk on the phone or Skype and text chat at other times. We exchange information and links. She sends me pictures of her beloved cats and samples from her graphic arts portfolio. I have been there for her in times of loss.

Her name is Lora Johnson. We have one other thing in common. We are both transgender. When she became comfortable with me, she told me that she used to be known as Shane Johnson. (I have since received an autographed copy of one of her pre-transition books, not that there have been any so far since her transition.)

Her health problems were and are real. The stress of trying to continue to live as a man was so severe, she developed heart problems that nearly killed her before she ever got the chance to live as the person she truly is inside. Realizing that she might not survive should they persist, she removed much of the stress by transitioning. She does have other health problems, serious ones that need attention as soon as possible. More on that in a moment.

Lora Johnson

Gender dysphoria is the reason why very few pictures of Shane can be found on the Internet. She cared little for “his” appearance and avoided having pictures taken at all costs. She’s not ashamed anymore. She has shared this picture on the Internet. This is my glamorous friend, Lora. Even more important, she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.

One of the things we have in common is the ability to blend completely into the world of women. Neither of us has had a negative experience in public. Being read as having been born with a male anatomy and overdosed on testosterone has been virtually nonexistent. We describe the event of starting to live as a woman 24-7 the same way: “It was like throwing a switch.”

Like me, Lora reports being much more at peace than ever before, including in her relationship with God. Unlike me, she lives in an area of the country that is very trans hostile. So the idea of her coming out has been far more daunting. But she believes that now is the time.

One thing that has not changed about Lora is her abundant writing and artistic talent. One reason for her coming out at this time is to be able to connect to her existing body of work, hopeful of fostering opportunities for future work.

I could go on and on telling you about my dear, sweet friend who I love like a sister. But Lora deserves to be able to tell her own heartwarming story.

The only thing I will add is about the health problems I alluded to earlier. Lora has a congenital condition in her neck that makes her prone to serious infections. The infections are not constant, but when they occur, they are getting worse and are lasting longer. There is a surgeon in her area who believes she can correct this defect. But surgery is not cheap and Lora’s income and assets are limited. She has started a Gofundme page to raise funds to pay for the operation. Please seriously consider contributing. I hope you will find it in your heart to do so. Here’s the link:

Having evoked Star Trek in my last post, I’m in the mood to write another entry with a connection to it. Between the time of the original series in the late 1960’s and Star Trek: The Next Generation roughly twenty years later, a few changes were made to the open credits and theme beyond the obvious differences in cast member and narrator. One major change was a bow to the changing times of the twentieth century (not the changing times in the future). Instead of “where no man has gone before”, it became “where no one has gone before”.

Even so, three female cast members (Nichelle Nichols, Majel Barrett and Grace Lee Whitney) were featured in at least for some of the episodes of the original series. In addition there were many female guest stars during the three year run. But perhaps the biggest female presence was not only behind the camera but in stealth.

Casual Star Trek fans may remember the name D.C. Fontana appearing in the closing credits. Die-hard fans would come to know her as Dorothy Catherine Fontana. Dorothy, who wanted to be a writer from childhood, received her first television writing credits using her first name. Having obtained a foothold in the television industry as a secretary through her persistence, that same determination eventually found her pitching story ideas to the producer. Her first idea didn’t sell, but encouraged, she continued to pitch ideas and one was bought. Eventually, she wrote two stories and did the teleplay for two more stories in 1960-61 for “The Tall Man”, a show about Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett (the latter was the tall man). It was one of many westerns on at the time and it was a favorite genre for Dorothy.

At this point, Dorothy was not selling enough ideas to become a writer full-time, so she continued to make her living as a secretary. She was able to write one more teleplay in 1961 for another western, “Frontier Circus”, which was produced by the same man (Samuel A. Peebles) as “The Tall Man”. But trying to expand her writing career by pitching story ideas to producers who did not know her personally, she found success elusive. Not only are women underrepresented in the television and film writing industry, Dorothy’s interest was writing for action/adventure shows. Producers of such shows who didn’t know her firmly believed that women could not write action/adventure shows and there were very few women who had broken that glass ceiling. Dorothy was able to successfully pitch many of her ideas if she could get the interview. But as “Dorothy” those cold interviews were hard to come by.

That was when she got the idea of submitting unsolicited story ideas using just her initials. For the first time in four years, she was able to sell a story idea: an episode of Ben Casey. Dorothy says that once she got the interview, producers were only interested in whether or not it was good story. But it took using D.C. as her name to get through the door.

Eventually, she found herself working as Gene Roddenberry’s secretary. She was part of the Star Trek team from the very beginning. Having impressed Gene with her abilities, he asked Dorothy’s opinion on the initial write-up of the idea for the show. She loved it, especially the character of Spock. She assisted as they tried to sell the show (MGM and some other studios passed before Desilu bought it). Then it was a matter of getting a network interested. CBS showed initial interest but went with “Lost in Space” instead. Star Trek found a home on NBC. Then Dorothy assisted Gene with two pilots (the first one being rejected).

Because Dorothy had such extensive experience with the show from the beginning, Gene started to give her more opportunities to go beyond her secretarial position. She received her first writing credit on the original series for the teleplay of the “Charlie X” episode (eighth episode filmed but second one aired). Eventually, Dorothy was promoted completely out of her secretarial position and became story editor. Overall for the original series, she was given ten assorted writing credits and 31 additional credits as the Script Consultant. All told, for all Star Trek related projects, she has amassed 21 writing credits, 53 credits as a script consultant or story editor and 40 production credits.

In addition to her work with Star Trek, she has been provided behind the camera writing related talent for such shows as Big Valley, High Chaparral, Bonanza, Six Million Dollar Man, Kung Fu, Streets of San Francisco, Logan’s Run, The Waltons, Dallas, Buck Rogers, and Babylon 5.

Some sources say that it was Gene who urged Dorothy to continue to use the D.C. initials for her contributions to Star Trek, while an interview with Dorothy seemed to imply that it was her own decision. Either way, it became her standard credit for most of the remainder of her career. She reverted to using her first name only for three of her four Streets of San Francisco writing efforts and one Star Trek video game writing gig. On the other hand, with four of her writing credits, she used a totally different male name. For her last two writing assignments in the original Star Trek and for her only assignment with Buck Rogers, she used the non de plume of Michael Richards. And for one episode of Star Trek: TNG, she was credited as J. Michael Bingham.

The relevance of all this to my blog is that in certain fields, a woman has not needed to be transgender to have a reason to hide behind a male pseudonym. Despite the obvious writing talents of women, we have often needed to hide behind a male name to be taken seriously and be published. Female authors who spent most of their careers hidden behind a masculine name were George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), and George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin). To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee dropped her first name, Nelle, and used only her middle and last name as that combination would be far more likely assumed to be a male name. It was J.K. Rowling’s publisher who urged her to use her initials so her target audience of young boys would be more likely to read her work. She had submitted her first novel to them under her given first name, Joanne. More recently, she switched to the detective genre, and like Nora Roberts, assumed a new masculine name (Robert Galbraith).

Ms. Roberts had a successful romance novel career, but changed her pen name to J.D. Robb when she shifted to writing detective fiction. Most readers of the classics know that the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne began their careers using masculine-sounding names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was originally published under her male pen name as was Emily’s Wurthering Heights. Louisa May Alcott did her early writing under the pen name of A.M. Bernard, and switched to her given name only after becoming known as a spokeswoman for women’s suffrage and civil rights. She is credited with striking a revolutionary blow against gender discrimination in the 19th century.

Another example in the world of science fiction is James Tiptree. Like D.C. Fontana, Alice Bradley Shelton published under this male pseudonym to increase her recognition in the male dominated genre and only revealed her true identity ten years before her death.

Author Rosemary Friedman originally had her first novel, No White Coat, published under a male name. (It is now published under her given name.) Last year, she penned an article for booksbywomen.org with the title Literary Sex Change, Using a Male Pseudonym. She and I are making the same observation.

Writing is not the only field where women have hidden behind a male identity. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War chronicles the story of approximately 250 women who fought on both sides of the conflict. Devotion to cause or to remain close to a male loved one were typical reasons. But one of the most common was economic. Army privates made double the average salary of jobs typically held by women. Furthermore, women at that time were not permitted to have bank accounts. The majority of those who took this route were members of other marginalized groups: recent immigrants, farm girls, working class and impoverished. It was worth the risk to open up this new world of opportunity normally enjoyed only by the men of that era.

It is noted that some continued to dress and live as males after the end of the war. The book does not explore whether they did this to maintain their new found status, protect their veteran’s pension or whether they were actually female to male transsexuals. That some were transsexuals cannot be discounted. More recently but before the idea of transsexualism started to become more well known, we have the example of jazz musician Billy Tipton (nee Dorothy Lucille Tipton) who at first only performed as a man, but by his mid-thirties began living full-time as a man as well.

Finally two more personal notes: one closely related to the topic and one more loosely related to the subject of gender discrimination. I have a good cisgender friend who is a published author of e-books. Karin Kaufman has published three cozy mysteries (one recent release) and contributed to two short story collections under that name. But when she published a novel in the thriller genre, she substituted her initials (K.T.) for her first name. Furthermore, she asked if I could give my reviews under my former male name because the review would carry more weight with male readers that way. She decries the fact that while women will read books written by men or women and will watch movies aimed at men or women, most men will only knowingly read male authors and watch male-oriented shows. It is still considered a great sacrifice for a man to please his wife or girlfriend and attend a so-called “chick flick” with her.

This is my blog and I can promote someone if I want to. So I will. But I do so only because I believe she is a very talented writer who deserves every new reader she can get. So I am unabashedly including the link to her Amazon.com page:

Please visit and try one of her books. I believe you will enjoy it very much at this time of year when it is so nice to curl up under a blanket or by a fireplace with a good book. And if you like it and let her know I sent you, she will think I am her most wonderful friend! J

Switching gears slightly, I was born in New York City. Yesterday, the New York City Council passed by an overwhelming vote, a bill that allows a transperson to change both name AND gender marker on his or her birth certificate without gender conforming surgery if they were born in New York City (the rest of New York State adopted a similar measure in June). And ultimately this is what this article is really about: exposing gender discrimination in all forms, the lengths it requires some people to go to, and working to overturn every one of them.

And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. – 1st Corinthians 12:23-25

I am old enough to remember when the original three seasons of Star Trek were on television in the 1960’s. The hard core following of fans (Trekkies) eventually led to movies featuring the original cast, a number of new television series that were sequels plus one prequel, and more recently an alternate reality Star Trek. It has been an impressive run for the franchise.

The Kobayashi Maru test was not introduced until the movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”. But it has been revisited a number of times since then in Star Trek literature, video games and even the alternate reality.

In brief, this test was designed by Star Fleet Academy to see how their cadets would react to a “no-win” scenario. There was not supposed to be any way to pass the test in the sense of achieving both of the desired outcomes (rescuing a civilian ship in distress in the neutral zone and preserving the Enterprise and the lives of the crew members).

Eventually, it is learned during Wrath of Khan that Kirk was the only person in Star Fleet Academy history to pass the test. He did so by secretly reprogramming the computer prior to taking the test. Rather than being punished for cheating, he received a commendation for original thinking. However, he is accused at a later date of having cheated death rather than facing it.

Whether it is large or small, most of us have a family. For those of us who are transsexual, intertwined in making the decision to transition is deciding whether to tell our family members. Associated with the decision to come out is the expectation of rejection.

This is the source of Kobayashi Maru for us: that sense that we are in a no-win situation when we come out to family members. We are faced with not two but three choices that appear to be less than satisfactory: tell our family and be rejected; quietly leave our family so they feel rejected and don’t know why it happened; grit our teeth and suffer in silence as we hide our secret behind a mask as we deny ourselves and fend off transitioning.

Like the Kobayashi Maru, each of these choices carries with it a sense of dying. In the first two choices, we die to family. The only difference is who makes the choice to pull the plug. In the third choice we die to self, a little bit more each day. But in some ways, the third choice is an illusion. For most of us, our self-preservation instincts kick in and we narrow the test down to the first two choices. We realize that it is transition or die. But in the saddest cases of all, the trans person chooses physical death. In tragic irony, to spare one’s family of losing the child, sibling, parent or spouse they thought they knew, they cause that very loss.

Family rejection is all too real. This week, you may have read the story of Jennifer Gable. At age 32, Jennifer was suddenly struck down a few weeks ago by a brain aneurysm that occurred without warning. In life, her family rejected her. But an even greater indignity occurred when she died. Her birth family was able to determine how she was treated post mortem. In her obituary, her funeral, her final resting, they denied that Jennifer ever existed. All references to her used the male name she had rejected. For the final viewing and burial, they had her hair cut short and had her dressed in male clothes. In her obituary, they only referred to events that occurred during the portion of her life when she was in her male persona. They covered up anything about her female persona, even though her transition occurred when she was in her twenties. The only pronouns used to refer to her are male.

When we observed TDOR in recent days, we were reminded anew of the indignities that are perpetrated upon those of us in the transgender community and our allies, indignities that accompany the taking of lives. And now we read of a family so hateful toward their own daughter that they would extend those indignities into the grave.

A friend of Jennifer has created a fund to try to set things right. For those of you who believe that this is a worthy cause to consider, here is a link to its GoFundMe page:

So far I have painted the bleakest picture. Not every family rejects. In rare but joyful cases, the entire family accepts and embraces their trans family member. Hopefully, this is happening more often, especially with the families of transgender children who come out.

Then, there are the cases where the reaction is mixed. Some accept and some do not. Yes, that might mean increased family tension, but at least the transitioning person has some family members to lean on.

If surveys have been done in terms of which family members are most likely to be accepting, I am not aware of them. There’s little point in speculating on who is more likely to be accepting. Would mother be more likely than father? Does birth order or the gender of the siblings play a role? Ultimately, all that matters is the individual trans person’s experience. The sample size equals one. How the family reacts trumps the statistics.

People generally want to protect the children. And yet they may be the most resilient and understanding of all the family members. Once again, which ones will accept and which ones will not is guesswork. And it should be remembered that for all family members, the initial reaction may not be the final one. Someone who initially rejects may come around in time.

There are also external factors that influence the decision to acceptance or rejection. In particular, we can look to the categories of culture and religion. Decisions are made in an atmosphere of national beliefs and sometimes regional beliefs. They are made in light of their family’s spiritual beliefs. And it also depends upon whether the family member tends to conform to or rebel against their family’s norms.

I have saved one family member for last. I did so because this family member’s reaction is the most important in terms of future family stability. I did so because this person is a strong influence on the couple’s children. And I did so because this person is the most likely to be negative. I am talking about the spouse.

I am not familiar with any details of an FTM transsexual who was married to a man prior to transition. But I know a few MTF transsexuals who were married to a woman prior to transition. I know some whose marriages ended, some whose marriages are in the process of ending, some who are keeping a marriage together during transition (for some it is a struggle), and some who are facing what might happen to their marriage once they start transition.

This is the relationship that appears to have the most difficult time surviving. Typical comments from the wife are, “I didn’t sign up for this,” or “I’m not a lesbian,” or “I thought I married a man, not a woman.” This is where the no-win situation is the most frequent and most obvious. Transition and the spouse’s reaction to it often splits the marriage apart and leaves little common ground on which to stand. It is a profoundly grievous situation.

Even sadder is when a spouse feels justified in turning the children against the transitioning parent. Of course, we must remember that this often happens during the divorce of a cisgender couple. But it is especially hard on a transgender parent who usually is much more vulnerable and suffering loss from many directions.

Again, I will point out that some marriages do survive, at least in some form. Helen Boyd has written two books about her continuing marriage with a transsexual husband. More recently, Leslie Fabian has written a book in support of her trans husband, describing the three year process of struggling to be accepting and supportive to actually falling in love all over again with the person she married. But they are examples of the exception, not the rule. A husband’s transition is often too much for “till death do us part” and “unconditional love” to bear. And I even know of cases where the wife willingly admits that her husband has become a better person by casting off her mask and becoming her true self, yet still struggles to find a way to stay in the relationship.

Is there a way to implement the Kirk solution to the Kobayashi Maru for transsexuals? If there is, I don’t see it. When a transsexual comes out to family members, people are involved, not computers. But I do have some suggestions.

First, make any amends with loved ones that are due them. Do not require them to do so in return. I am not advising you to ACT like a better person. I am counseling you to BE a better person. Hopefully accepting your true self will help accomplish that. The closer you are to transition, the shorter your time to do this and some may be suspicious of your motives anyway. But it could help with some family members.

Second, plan an overall strategy. In what order do you tell people? Come out first to adults who are most likely to be supportive and an ally with other family members. Come out last to those who are either least likely to be supportive or who are most likely to gossip to other family members that you would prefer to tell yourself. Minor children will almost certainly require some negotiation with your spouse as to how and when they will be told, including who else needs to be present. Some may forbid the children being told at all. This area is especially likely to require help from your therapist/counselor.

Third, tailor your approach to the individual family member. I only needed to come out to one immediate family member, but I did also come out to a close cousin. And while I had to tell some clients and friends in a mass mailing due to time and geography limitations, I did tell a number of others in person. Their attention span, my awareness of their beliefs, my estimation of their likelihood of accepting and any other personal knowledge I had about them all went into tailoring my approach. When I was less confident during my early attempts, I relied more on third party material in case I became nervous. But I also had to guard against overconfidence when things started to go well. And if you like to joke around, you may need to curb it somewhat, and especially be on guard against a joke which could be misinterpreted and bring out the “icky” factor in the other person.

Finally, as a Christian, I relied on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. My own gender counselor closely questioned the decision on who to come out to first in my apartment building. It proved to yield many benefits far beyond where I live. Some of my TG friends initially chided me for being overly cautious and analytical. They later acknowledged how it led to my success. I was following the Spirit’s guidance in these matters.

On an even more personal note, the close family member I mentioned is my brother. Because we had other differences to patch up, I just came out to him two weeks ago. He is struggling with the news, but reports from his wife and from one of my cousins make me hopeful that things will work out.

During season two of the original Star Trek series, the crew of the Enterprise has its second encounter with the sleazy criminal, Harry Mudd. This time, Mudd is the ruler of a planet of androids who serve him. One of those androids hijacks the Enterprise and brings it to the android planet.

Eventually, Mudd discovers that what he thought was a paradise is actually a gilded prison. Neither he nor the crew of the Enterprise can leave the planet.

A plan is hatched to overcome the central computer in control. The idea is that if they can overload the central computer’s circuits, it will disable the entire network. Then they can reprogram and the Enterprise can leave.

To accomplish the overload, they engage in a series of illogical stunts and statements. Even Mr. Spock plays against type and tells a pair of identical female androids, “I love you, but I hate you.” The one who Spock hated replies, “But, we’re absolutely identical!” Spock responds, “Yes, that’s why I hate you.”

Of course, the plan eventually works.

One of the realities for every transsexual who embarks on transition is the coming out phase. For younger children and teenagers, this generally means coming out in school, their neighborhood, perhaps a place of worship and to family. For an adult, life has increased the number of circles of connection: college or trade school and the workplace would be the most common. But other friendships have also developed over time in some of the following: social clubs, military, neighborhood groups, volunteer organizations, religious institutions, professional organizations, your clients, your service providers, friends of one’s spouse and even people you meet simply going through life.

In a separate post, I will discuss coming out to family in greater detail (also with a Star Trek reference, ironically). For now, I want to focus on the simple idea of acceptance and rejection when we come out to our immediate world.

One of the things I was told by my gender counselor and others in the TG community is that you cannot accurately predict who will accept and who will reject. Like Mr. Spock and the identical androids, it is difficult to apply logic to the situation. Perhaps, it is simply that we do not know enough about the other person. For one thing, most of us were not comfortable to casually broach the subject to test the future waters.

Furthermore, the initial reaction is not always etched in stone. People who swear they will always be there for you are suddenly MIA. And people who initially reject may come back to you, contrite, apologetic or even tearful.

In my case, I was fairly accurate in my assessments, perhaps with help from the Holy Spirit. But I can’t claim to have had 100% accuracy. What I found in retrospect was that those who rejected tended to have a strong emotional attachment to me or some other way they elevated my position in their life: father figure, hoped to marry me, best guy friend, mentor or strong male Christian leader.

As a member of both a conservative evangelical church and a conservative evangelical ministry, I knew I had some difficult ground ahead. I voluntarily resigned from the ministry simply because I was admitting I did not meet one of the primary qualifications: it is a men’s ministry. About a month later, I told a select group of leaders the real reason for my resignation. I did so for two reasons. First of all, these were the people I felt closest to in the ministry. Second, I had a client who was a fellow member of the ministry. I knew the people he was likely to go to when he found out. I wanted them to find out from me first.

Except for the client, I was not looking to stay in any of their lives. But I did get two messages of support. In one case, we have stayed in touch. From almost all the rest, there was silence.

Sometimes there are unexpected victories. There is an elderly couple that I met through the ministry and have known for over 20 years. He was like a spiritual father to me. Based on age and my knowledge of his beliefs, I calculated that it was highly likely they would not understand or accept my transition. I specifically asked those that I told in the ministry to not tell them, lest it hurt them deeply.

Out of hardness of heart, one of them went out of his way to tell them. To my delight (and probably his great surprise), they did not reject me. I am pleased to say that I am in regular fellowship with them, perhaps even closer than before. They even have my new picture on their wall next to other family pictures and cards.

I had no clients within the small church I attended. But when I came out to my pastor and his wife, and they were the first people I came out to at the start of my transition journey, I told them that I would not be the cause of a church split. When I started living full-time as Lois 13 months ago, I voluntarily left that church. Had I caused an uproar, odds are that I would have eventually left anyway, but the pastor would have been the one to pay the price in more ways than one. We are still friends and I would never knowingly bring harm to him. And the Lord led me to a new church (with the help of another Christian I came out to) where I am very happy.

The elderly couple was not the only time that I was calculating odds of acceptance. In fact, that was the situation with each client I told. My livelihood depended upon the frequency of my being accepted. Many of you have one employer and one workplace in your life. In terms of your livelihood, your coming out begins and ends there. It’s all or nothing for you.

On the other hand, I am self-employed. I prepare close to 100 income tax returns for about 80 clients. Mentally, I began to put each client into acceptance categories: probably, possibly, 50-50 and probably not. With some of my key clients, I was able to meet with them in person or through a website that allowed them to join a conference call and see whatever was visible on my computer. These are people for whom I prepare multiple returns and who sometimes refer other business to me. And I came out to a client with whom I am close and who is also a mental health professional. I had a 100% success rate with this group.

But with that many clients (about 15% who live outside of a reasonable driving distance), there was no way I could tell everyone personally. To those I could not contact personally, I sent a two page letter emphasizing: the trials that brought me to this place in my life; that this would not diminish the quality of my work; that during the previous tax season, I had already basically given myself over to being Lois in my mind and I had the most efficient and organized tax season ever.

In addition, I included a photo card using three images from my photo shoot with Amanda Richards (True Colors Makeup Artistry, Bethlehem, PA – I highly recommend her for makeup skills, photography technique and her ability to put at ease a newbie in front of a camera). Selecting those three photos took longer than I expected. But it was worth it. I feel that it helped some of my clients who had never met a transsexual before. They could see that I was still a real person, not a caricature or some preconceived image they might have picked up from the media.

An interesting and serendipitous result from my sending the pictures was that a large percentage of my clients did not recognize me. (My new name is quite different from my old name.) Some only realized who it was when they read the letter. Originally, most thought I had sold the business and this was the person I was recommending. One person thought I had gotten married and my wife was becoming part of the business. Another thought I might be her husband’s cousin of the same first name.

I can only assume that for four of my clients (because they have no recollection of receiving the information and they originally contacted me by my old name), they opened it, saw the picture and assumed I was someone looking to build a tax practice. Thinking to themselves that they already had a tax preparer, they threw everything away without reading the letter. Three of the four stayed with me.

Finally, for my Christian clients only, I included an additional write up on what I was discovering regarding what the Bible had to say about being transsexual. They are some of the forerunners for my blog posts on the same topic. You are getting an expanded and improved version of that initial discourse. The Lord continues to reveal things to me over time.

I also sent out a modified version of the photo card and basic letter as my Christmas message to non-client friends who lived too far away to tell in person. They were sent out very close to Christmas because of everything else that was going on in my life. But I received one Christmas card of support from a procrastinator in the sending of cards (as I usually am). I received some other phone calls or e-mails of support and one e-mail rejection. I have heard nothing at all from four others. I guess I will find out if I get a Christmas card from them this year.

Getting back to the clients, I received an immediate outpouring of support from about 20% of the clients (the 80-20 rule strikes again). Then on New Year’s Eve, I received a negative letter (but that client eventually stayed with me). Then there was a cluster of negatives (from three Christians who know each other well). Finally, there was an agonizingly slow dribbling in of clients who contacted me at their usual time (and a few who were later than usual because of a lot going on in their lives). In the final tally, I lost some business but I also gained some new clients from referrals. One dear Christian client made an extra effort to find new business for me when she heard that other clients were dropping me. A higher percentage of clients came back to me than I expected, and my business didn’t suffer as much as I feared.

I now have a display ad in our local LGBT friendly business guide. I am hopeful that it will help build back more of the business I lost.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:3-5